Good for your body, good for your soul

“Good for the body and good for the soul” was this year’s theme for Curves International’s 14th annual month-long food drive.

Once again, Curves of Morrisburg took part in the March event. According to owner Kelly Keeler, “this was the best year ever.”

On April 2nd, Keeler revealed that the gym collected 2,565 pounds of food and supplies for the Dundas County Food Bank, easily exceeding their original goal of 2,000 pounds. In fact, they doubled their 2011 haul of 1,230 pounds.

Keeler pointed out that “most of the groceries that were purchased, were purchased locally.”

To motivate members, Keeler drafted an incentive plan for the members of the Morrisburg gym: for every 20 pounds of food donated, they received five ballots.

Winning ballots will be drawn sometime next week. An Avon gift basket, a Curves gift basket, and a bracelet are just a few of the prizes available. The first place prize is a pair of Upper Canada Playhouse tickets, donated by the Playhouse.

“Kelly does a lot. She really motivates everybody,” said Curves member and former chair of the Dundas County Food Bank, Brenda Millard. “Our community is hugely generous.”

In addition to the in-house prizes for members, there was an incentive for those who wanted to join the gym during the month of March. Rather than pay the membership fee, new members had the option of donating two bags of groceries or $30 to the food bank. Morrisburg had 15 new members join the club during their March food drive.

In addition to Keeler’s in-house incentives, Curves International had some incentives of their own.

In a February press release, Curves founder Diane Heavin stated: “With a theme of ‘Good for your body and your soul,’ this year’s drive encourages Curves members to feel doubly good about themselves as they make time to exercise for good health and take time to help others in the community with a donation of nutritious food.”

“Local Curves clubs may also qualify to win cash prizes for their local food banks. Curves International will award cash prizes to the clubs that collect the most food, the clubs that show the greatest increase in donations over the 2011 food drive, and to two additional clubs randomly selected from all the clubs who enter the contest.”

According to Keeler, Curves International is expected to announce these award winners sometime in late April or early May. The prizes, all monetary, will go to the food bank associated with the winning Curves club. There is one $1,000 prize as well as several $500 prizes.

Keeler has high hopes for the final awards and said, “anything we win will go directly to the food bank.”

“I think that my club may be in the top five or earn one of the other prizes for the food bank… I’m hoping anyway,” said Keeler.

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All a person has to do is just mention the name of guitarist Adrian Legg.

Immediately music lovers explode into rapturous descriptions of his multi genre style, his extraordinary and original compositions, his legendary showmanship, his infectious joie de vivre. In short, they love this transplanted Englishman and artist, who will be lighting up the St. Lawrence Acoustic Stage in concert on Saturday, November 15, at 7 p.m.

“I have been fortunate enough to have seen Adrian Legg in concert twice – and would gladly see him nightly…” said Eric Thom (a former Morrisburg resident who writes music reviews for Maverick, Sing Out, Roots Music Canada among others). “(Legg’s) standalone style combines with elements of classical, jazz, folk, rock and even country, to create something altogether other-worldly and completely captivating.”

Adrian Legg has built an international reputation based on his completely unique finger style approach to the guitar. Recipient of numerous musical awards, and consistently on top of musical polls, Legg performs on a custom guitar that is a hybrid of electronic and acoustic. I asked him about “inventing” his instrument.

“The guitar wouldn’t do what I wanted,” he said, “so I changed it. For me, the American guitar goes from Elizabeth Cotten to Lonnie Mack, taking in banjo and steel guitar. While others devotedly tend individual trees, I just love the whole wood. I need an instrument that can come close to reflecting that.”

A teacher and mentor to other artists, Legg has just released his 12th album, Dead Bankers, to great acclaim. I asked him where the inspirational ideas for his music come from. “Tunes have a technical vehicle and an emotional idea. Sometimes they meet and work, sometimes they don’t…sometimes the music just arrives. I don’t really see music as a business. I keep learning. I have to, I keep writing things I can’t play,” he laughed. “We have to learn new words sometimes to say more clearly what we want to communicate, and so it is with music.”

His on stage versatility is the stuff of legend. “(My heart) lies in the moment…Sometimes music is very simple. A good piece of pop can tell a human story very quickly and simply. Sometimes the story is more complex and there are more layers to discover and understand. How can anyone lose a passion for music? That must be a kind of death.”

Live performance is Legg’s forte. He loves an audience. As he once wrote, “Playing live is the whole point. Everyone makes a journey:..we all come together to share this wonderful, universal, human emotional interaction. This is where music lives.”

And, as Eric Thom puts it, Adrian Legg’s sense of humour is as infectious as his music. “This warm, completely affable Brit…generously provides hilarious banter along the way. (Concert-goers) are in for one unforgettable experience.”

Opening for Adrian Legg on Saturday evening will be a young guitarist who is just beginning to make his mark on the Canadian music scene. Chris Thompson first appeared on the Stage in an Intimate Acoustics show case in 2011. A finger style guitarist himself, Thompson said that he is “excited and honoured to be sharing a stage with a musician as talented and decorated as Adrian. He’s a true genius and a guitar master.”

Thompson has two albums to his name now, and is a composer who “tries to write songs that meet a balance between catchy and melodic, while still being musically and visually exciting.” About two years ago, he went back to basics, focusing more on “building a strong melody and recognizable cohesiveness to my music.” He’s been working on improvisation, blues and jazz. Like Adrian Legg, Chris Thompson loves live performance.

“I really feel strongly that music should always be genuine and from the heart. Part of what makes music performance so powerful is its power to connect you with people. When you’re singing or playing a song that really hits home to an audience member, that’s when the magic happens. The fact that you can tell a story, evoke emotion, and share a connection with someone over some sounds on a guitar is beautifully fascinating to me.”

Tickets for Adrian Legg in concert at the St. Lawrence Acoustic Stage on Saturday, November 15 at 7 p.m. are $18 in advance or $20 at the door. Contact the Stage website at www.st-lawrencestage.com/shows.

In recognition of their many years of contributions to the community, to the Morrisburg and District Lions Club and to Lionism, longtime Lions Les Cruickshank and Glen Cunningham were recently made Life Members. Following the announcement made by Lion Wayne Domanko, they were joined by Morrisburg and District Lions Club president Bob Bechard for the above photograph. From l-r, are Lions Bechard, Cruickshank, Cunningham and Domanko.